eBook Adoption Continues to Increase in Australia

While there is a growing dispute over the size and scope of the US ebook market, in Australia there's no doubt that adoption continues apace.

Roy Morgan Research just released the results of a consumer survey which showed that ebook adoption in Australia was up. In the twelve months ending September 2014, Roy Morgan found that 7% of its survey group had bought an ebook in an average three month period, up from 6.6% in the survey period ending September 2013.

The ebook buyers tended to be concentrated in the 25 to 34 age group (8%) and the 35 to 49 age group (9.1%), both of which saw an increase in adoption. Curiously, the 50 to 64 age group saw a drop in adoption (to 7.5%), and along with readers under the age of 18 it was the only age cohort to do so.

While it is generally good to see ebook adoption continuing to grow, Australia still lags considerably far behind the US. According to the latest figures from the Pew Research Center, 29% of Americans had read an ebook in the 12 months leading up to January 2014.

Yes, I know that figure is now a year out of date, but unless I completely missed something Pew hasn't released any new data since then. (I just checked.) I had not noticed the lack of new data until today, and I will follow up.

Nate Hoffelder

Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:
He's here to chew bubble gum and fix broken websites, and he is all out of bubble gum. He has been blogging about indie authors since 2010 while learning new tech skills at the drop of a hat. He fixes author sites, and shares what he learns on The Digital Reader's blog. In his spare time, he fosters dogs for A Forever Home, a local rescue group.